Bryant may be foolish to believe that he will be the exception to this rule, but to his point, there has been no evidence of him slowing down. Prior to his Achilles injury, Bryant was arguably playing the best basketball of his career.

Bryant is going to go above and beyond what he needs to do to get back to his previous level. It’s because of this known drive to be the best that it’s hard to doubt that Bryant will get back to that point, even though all the evidence suggests otherwise.

Even still, Bryant knows his career is winding down and he is fine with that. The only thing that bothers him is that people think he has no life off the court, as he told the New Yorker:

Kobe: 'I get questions all the time:‘What are you going to do when you retire?’As if I had no life,no talent outside of playing basketball.'

Kobe is a winner, and he plans on winning in his final years on the court. And by all accounts, he plans on winning once he leaves the game as well.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________Frustrated Kobe Bryant On Lakers Terrible Season: ‘I Guess Fail And Be The Best At It’